Flamanville EPR completes key pre-operational tests

EDF has completed cold functional tests at the EPR reactor under construction at its Flamanville site in northern France. Flamanville unit 3 is scheduled to begin operating by the end of this year.

The Flamanville EPR (Image: Alexis Morin and Antoine-Soubigou/EDF)

Cold functional tests are carried out to confirm whether components and systems important to safety are properly installed and ready to operate in a cold condition. The main purpose of these tests is to verify the leak-tightness of the primary circuit.

The cold functional test phase for Flamanville 3 began on 18 December and was completed on 6 January.

"This stage is part of the system performance testing, which started in the first quarter of 2017, to check and test operation of all the EPR systems," EDF said.

These tests included a leak performance test on the reactor coolant system at a pressure greater than 240 bar - significantly exceeding the normal operating pressure. During this test, more than 500 welds were inspected, supervised by the French nuclear regulator, Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN).

EDF is now preparing to conduct hot functional tests, which will start in July. These will involve checking the equipment under similar temperature and pressure conditions to those under which it will operate.

Construction work began in December 2007 on the 1650 MWe unit at the Flamanville site in Normandy - where two reactors have been operating since 1986 and 1987. The dome of the reactor building was put in place in July 2013 and the reactor vessel was installed in January 2014. The reactor was originally expected to start commercial operation in 2013, but owing to delays this is now expected late this year.

EDF has confirmed its roadmap for the Flamanville 3 project drawn up in September 2015, with fuel loading and start-up of the reactor at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. It also confirmed the project cost is set at €10.5 billion (at the 2015 rate, excluding interim interest).

The first-of-a-kind EPR at Finland's Olkiluoto plant has been under construction since 2005 and has seen several revisions to its start-up date. In October, the schedule for OL3 commencing regular electricity production was again revised from the end of 2018 to May 2019. The unit began functional hot tests last month.

The Taishan 1 EPR in China, which has been under construction since 2009, has completed functional hot tests and will be the first EPR to operate. It is expected to start up later this year, while Taishan 2 is scheduled to begin operating next year.